Western Digital drops Compuage as disti

Western Digital (WD) seems to be aggressively juggling its distribution
network in India. The company recently parted ways with it long-term ally,
Mumbai-based Compuage India. At the same time it has partnered another
Mumbai-based distributor, SES Technologies.

Sharad Srivastava, Director-Sales, Western Digital has confirmed this
development. "Since last quarter Compuage has stopped selling WD products. We
parted ways mainly due to difference in our respective business working models.
Presently, we have decided to disengage on mutual consent."

However, he added that WD and Compuage would continue to be in touch with
each other. "We look forward to a favorable situation and business working model
that will enable us to work together in future," Srivastava added.

An e-mail sent to Vinod Thakkar of Compuage remained unanswered.

Meanwhile, WD has signed up SES Technologies as national distributor for the
entire range of internal hard disk drives. "It is good to have Western Digital
as a partner. Our focus would be to strength WD's position in the market. We
hope that this tie-up will help to enhance our product portfolio," said Jacques
Roux, Director, SES Technologies.

When asked about this tie-up Srivastava said, "SES has good reach and has
several value-addition including logistics and post sales support, professional
management and domain understanding. We also hope that our association will
benefit the end customers located in smaller cities and towns and will provide
immense value to our offerings."

Kapil Wadhwa, of Delhi's Champion Computers, another WD distributor, said
that the market is huge and there is enough space for a new player.